The Hall of Fame released its eight-player Contemporary Baseball Era ballot Monday, and it includes some familiar — and controversial — names: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling. Other players to be considered for the class of 2023 include Albert Belle, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy and Rafael Palmeiro. Notably absent from the ballot: Sammy Sosa.
The 16-person committee, which consists of Hall of Fame players, baseball executives and veteran sportswriters, will vote on the players at the winter meetings on Dec. 4. A player must receive 12 votes to be elected.
Bonds, Clemens, Schilling and Sosa each appeared on the baseball writers’ ballot for the 10th and final time this past election cycle. Needing 75% to get elected, Bonds received 66.0% of the vote, Clemens 65.2%, Schilling 58.6% and Sosa well back at just 18.5%. All four became immediately eligible for the Contemporary Era committee, which considers players who made their greatest contributions from 1980 to the present era but failed to gain election from the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Both Bonds, a seven-time MVP who is the sport’s all-time and single-season home run leader, and seven-time Cy Young winner Clemens received their highest level of support in their final year on the writers’ ballot, climbing from as low as 35% in their initial years on the ballot.
Schilling doesn’t have the same PED allegations as Bonds and Clemens, and his support reached as high as 71.1% in 2021, falling just 16 votes short of election. Schilling then wrote a letter to the Hall of Fame asking to be removed from the ballot in his final year, which the Hall of Fame denied, and his support collapsed. Schilling’s numbers — 216 wins, three 300-strikeout seasons, 80.5 career WAR and an 11-2 record in the postseason with three World Series title — warrant strong consideration for election, but he ostracized himself in retirement with hateful comments toward Muslims, transgender people and journalists.
“I’ll defer to the veterans committee and men whose opinions actually matter and who are in a position to actually judge a player,” Schilling wrote when asked to be removed from the ballot.
Palmeiro is one of just seven players with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, but unlike Bonds, Clemens and Sosa, he actually received a PED suspension after testing positive in 2005, his final season in the majors. He lasted four years on the BBWAA ballot, getting removed after falling below the 5% vote threshold needed to remain on.
This will be Palmeiro’s first time on a veterans committee ballot — but not so for Murphy and Mattingly. Murphy, a two-time MVP with the Atlanta Braves who peaked at just 23.2% on the BBWAA ballot, appeared on both the 2018 and 2020 Modern Era ballots (as well as earlier incarnations), receiving fewer than seven votes in 2018 from the 16-person committee and three or fewer in 2020. Mattingly, the popular New York Yankees first baseman and 1985 AL MVP, also appeared on both ballots with the same low vote totals.
Depending on how the committee views the transgressions of Bonds, Clemens and Schilling, McGriff may be the player with the best chance of election. A likable five-time All-Star who hit 493 home runs and drove in 1,550 runs, McGriff never received 40% of the vote on the BBWAA ballot, but his 10 years on the ballot came when it was crowded with PED-tarnished players and other strong candidates (writers are allowed to vote for just 10 players), and his borderline case never received much popular support — perhaps in part because he played for six different teams.
Belle was a lethal slugger who once had 50 home runs and 50 doubles in the same season and finished with 381 home runs, but injuries shortened his career to just 12 seasons. He appeared on the 2017 and 2019 Today’s Game ballots and received fewer than five votes both times.
The revamped veterans committee election cycle means the next vote for Contemporary Era ballot wouldn’t come until December 2025 (for election in the class of 2026). Next year’s election will feature Contemporary Era managers, executives and umpires, and then the Classic Era (pre-1980) will be voted on in December 2024.
The BBWAA vote will be announced on Jan. 24, 2023. The top returning vote-getters are Scott Rolen (63.2%), Todd Helton (52.0%) and Billy Wagner (51.0%). The ballot also includes Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield and Andruw Jones. The top newcomer is Carlos Beltran.
Gurriel was hurt in the sixth inning after he jumped awkwardly out of the way to avoid center fielder Blaze Alexander, who made a diving catch on a line drive by Rowdy Tellez for the third out of the inning.
Alexander was playing his first game in center field as a big leaguer.
Gurriel stayed on the ground for several minutes while medical staff attended to him. The 31-year-old eventually got up and walked to a cart before being driven off the field.
Additional tests confirmed the torn ACL.
Gurriel is batting .248 this season with 19 homers and 80 RBIs.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Ohio State climbed to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll on Tuesday, LSU and Miami moved into the top five, and Florida State jumped back into the rankings at the expense of Alabama, which plummeted to its lowest spot in 17 seasons.
The defending national champion Buckeyes received 55 of 66 first-place votes to move up two spots after their win over preseason No. 1Texas. Ohio State is at the top of a regular-season poll for the first time since November 2015.
The Longhorns dropped to No. 7 as the media voters shuffled the rankings following a topsy-turvy Labor Day weekend. It was only the second time — and first since 1972 — that two top-five teams lost in Week 1 and the first time that four top-10 teams lost.
Only three teams in the Top 25 are in the same spot they were in the preseason poll.
Penn State got seven first-place votes and remained No. 2. LSU, which received three first first-place votes, was followed by Georgia and Miami to round out the top five.
The biggest movers in the poll were Florida State and Alabama after the Seminoles’ 31-17 victory in their head-to-head matchup.
The Seminoles, who were 15 spots outside the Top 25 in the preseason, are now No. 14. The Crimson Tide fell all the way from No. 8 to No. 21 — their lowest ranking since Bama was No. 24 in the 2008 preseason poll. That was the second of Nick Saban’s 17 teams in Tuscaloosa.
It’s been quite a turnabout for Florida State. The Seminoles were No. 10 in the 2024 preseason, lost their first two games, finished 2-10 and weren’t ranked again until now.
Utah, at No. 25, joins Florida State as the only newcomers to this week’s poll. The Utes are ranked for the first time since last October, when they were at the front end of a seven-game losing streak.
Utah had received the second-most points, behind BYU, among teams outside the preseason Top 25, but the Utes got more credit for beatingUCLA on the road than the Cougars received for hammering FCS foe Portland State.
Boise State, which had been No. 25, received no votes following its 34-7 loss at South Florida. The Broncos had appeared in 14 straight polls.
Ohio State is the first team to take over the top spot in the first regular-season poll since Alabama in 2012. It was the biggest jump to No. 1 in the first regular-season poll since USC was promoted from No. 3 in 2008.
Texas’ fall was the biggest for a preseason No. 1 since Auburn dropped to No. 8 in the first regular-season poll of 1984.
LSU has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 3 in 2012, and Miami has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 5 in 2004.
South Carolina is in the top 10 in the regular season for the first time since it was No. 8 in December 2013.
No. 15 Michigan at No. 18 Oklahoma: This weekend’s game will be the first meeting since Oklahoma beat the Wolverines in the Orange Bowl to win the 1975 national championship. Wolverines freshman QB Bryce Underwood gets put to the test in his second start.
College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.
While Dabo Swinney isn’t inflating LSU‘s grade for beating his team in Saturday’s season opener, Brian Kelly is ready to give the Clemson coach an incomplete for his evaluation.
Both coaches weighed in Tuesday on how LSU’s 17-10 win at Clemson should be viewed. After trailing 10-3 at halftime, LSU outscored Clemson 14-0 in the second half and finished with significant edges in both total yards (354-261) and first downs (25-13).
LSU rose six spots to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll Tuesday, while Clemson dropped four spots to No. 8.
“It was a helluva game, down to the last play,” Swinney said in his weekly news conference. “Right out of the gate. It’s like getting the final exam [on] Day 1 of class. They made a 65; we made a 58. Neither one of us were great.”
Kelly had not won a season opener at LSU before Saturday, and the victory was his first with the Tigers against an AP top-5 opponent.
“I thought we dominated them in the second half, so he’s really a really good grader for giving himself a 58, or he’s a really hard grader on us,” Kelly said in his news conference when told about Swinney’s comment.
“Or he didn’t see the second half, which, that might be the case. He might not have wanted to see the second half.”
Kelly added that LSU is moving on to this week’s game against Louisiana Tech.
“Clemson is a darn good football team,” Kelly said. “That’s a top-notch team, and they’re going to be a team in the hunt for [the] playoff picture. We hope we are, too. But it was only one game. So I don’t know if he’s a hard grader or an easy grader, but I like the way that we played in the second half.”